F-150's chief engineer is no lightweight

Two years ago, Jackie DiMarco helped Ford Motor Co. break away from the traditional V-8 engines in its F-150 pickups for lighter, more fuel-efficient offerings.

Now, with the next-generation F-150 coming out in 2014, an even bigger proposition awaits her: Making the vehicle lighter -- hundreds of pounds lighter, in fact -- without losing durability or performance.

DiMarco is chief engineer for the F-150, which has been the best-selling pickup for nearly 36 years, and is poised Thursday to again be crowned the biggest selling vehicle -- car or truck -- of the year in the U.S.

She's the first woman to hold that position in the six-plus decades of the truck's existence. The 40-year-old, who grew up a short drive from a General Motors plant near Youngstown, Ohio, has worked on the F-150, plus the Expedition and Navigator, for two years.

Stepping in as chief engineer of the F-150, she faced a challenge: Swapping in a new line of powertrain options in 2010 that included a new V-6, V-8, and most significantly, a 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6.

"There's been a lot of product change," DiMarco said. "On paper, the EcoBoost engine is a fantastic truck engine, and we knew it was the right thing to do. The challenge was the mindset that you need eight cylinders and you need the displacement."

Ford wildly underestimated the receptiveness of drivers to the smaller EcoBoost engine. In fact, the automaker now sells more EcoBoost-equipped F-150s in one month than it thought it would sell in a year.

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"They've done a very good job convincing consumers that's the way to go," said Michelle Krebs, auto analyst at Edmunds.com. "The EcoBoost has almost become a brand in itself, which is brilliant."

With more than 40 percent of F-150 buyers opting for the EcoBoost engine, DiMarco said the new challenge has become trying to find enough of the engines to meet demand.

Versatility sought

When DiMarco parks her F-150 at her home in rural Ann Arbor, it's as if she just brought home a new swing set for her 9-year-old twin daughters, who would rather play in the bed of the truck than on their swings. "It's almost like a treehouse," DiMarco said.

While that's not exactly the intent of an F-150, the makeshift play place is representative of what DiMarco envisions for the truck. It will do much more than haul and tow -- it will be versatile enough to be a family vehicle.

"We've got many different series within F-150," DiMarco said. "Certainly, the work truck business is important to us ... but we really run the whole gamut. There are a lot of women driving the trucks."

She says there's a challenge in re-engineering the truck, but it has nothing to do with being a woman overseeing what has been the most masculine of vehicles. (She previously worked on the Mustang.) She sees her perspective as an advantage on the job.

"You feel a lot of pressure, but I never thought of it as being a female and having added pressure," said DiMarco, who has been with Ford since graduating with a pair of engineering degrees from Ohio State University. "Maybe there was. But I guess this is just what I've been doing for the last 16 years."

Appeals to women, too

Most truck purchasers will continue to be male -- more than 8 in 10 F-150 buyers, according to R.L. Polk & Co. But DiMarco says women will continue to find the vehicles an attractive alternative.

She says the fuel efficiency of future trucks will continue upward. There will be enough room in the crew cab for child safety seats. And the trucks will still be able to tow about anything.

Or as DiMarco puts it, "nice enough to take to a black-tie event and strong enough to haul your boat."

She envisions the F-150 as a no-compromise vehicle capable of capturing a greater audience.

But broadening the truck's reach could be limited, Edmunds.com's Krebs said.

"I don't think we will return anytime soon to 10 years ago, where people who didn't really need trucks were using them as personal vehicles," she said. "But we know that the average age of trucks on the road today is nearly 13 years, and obviously there are going to be people coming back to the market, and people are living a very active lifestyle."